Drive the corner of Cactus Road and Tatum Boulevard right now and you will see two versions of the same 100 acres. One version lives in press releases: a rendering of a steakhouse patio for 340 people, a Q2 2026 target date, a headline about a tavern from Arcadia that keeps getting reannounced. The other version is the one already running on a Wednesday night, with a line at the taco counter, kids doing laps in a rooftop pool, and a couple splitting calamari between turns on a golf simulator inside a converted tire shop.
If you have only been reading the coverage, you would assume this corner is still mostly fencing and renderings. It isn't. Roughly a dozen businesses at PV, the redevelopment of the former Paradise Valley Mall, have already opened and settled into the neighborhood's routine, while the names still generating headlines are the ones you can't actually walk into yet. That gap between what gets written about and what's open is the story worth understanding if you live near this corner.
Paradise Valley Mall opened in 1978 and closed in 2021, and demolition followed soon after. RED Development is now roughly halfway through turning that site into PV, a $2 billion mixed-use project built block by block rather than all at once, with restaurants, retail, offices, and apartments woven around a central green space called the Park at PV. Full buildout is targeted for 2030, which puts the total timeline from first demolition to last ribbon-cutting at close to a decade.
What's Already Part of Your Week
A surprising amount of PV has quietly become normal. Here's what's open right now:
- Whole Foods Market relocated here from its old spot at Shea and Tatum, where it had operated for 22 years, moving to PV in October 2024. The new store tops 50,000 square feet and stocks more than 330 items made or grown in Arizona, including produce from Duncan Family Farms, milk from Danzeisen Dairy, and flour from Hayden Flour Mills.
- Flower Child, from Phoenix-based Fox Restaurant Concepts, was the first restaurant to open on the site, back in September 2024.
- Blanco Reserva Cocina + Cantina, also from Fox Restaurant Concepts, opened in that same first wave.
- The Melt, a California-born burger and sandwich chain, chose PV for its first Arizona location.
- Trevor's Liquor took over the old Sears Tire and Battery shop and turned it into a 14,000-square-foot space with a full bar, a pizzeria, a golf simulator, a cigar lounge, and a dog-friendly patio, keeping pieces of the original building worked into the design.
- Velvet Taco opened its second Arizona location here in March 2026, serving tacos built around dishes like chicken tikka masala and Korean-style fried rice.
- Life Time Paradise Valley, a 92,000-square-foot athletic club with Pilates and yoga studios, a spa, pickleball courts, and a rooftop pool club, opened in early May 2026.
There's also a second group worth naming, because the coverage on them has simply gone quiet, which is its own kind of confirmation. Back in an April 2025 report, Wren House Brewing Co., Hawaiian Bros Island Grill, Frost Gelato Shoppe, and Distinctive Salon & Spa were all described as set to open "next month," and the same report put Federal Pizza's second location, from the team behind Postino, on track for "the summer." That was more than a year before today. Whatever delays are normal for a project this size, a one-month or one-season target from spring 2025 has had well over a year to become reality rather than remaining a plan.
Here's the corner as it actually sorts out right now:
| Already Open | Still on the Calendar (target window) |
|---|---|
| Whole Foods Market | Harry & Izzy's (Q2 2026) |
| Flower Child | The Vig (early 2026) |
| Blanco Reserva Cocina + Cantina | Cala's second location (2026, no quarter set) |
| The Melt | Too Sweet Cakes (Q2 2026) |
| Trevor's Liquor | FACE FOUNDRIÉ and Zara Nail Bar (2026) |
| Velvet Taco | Helios Pilates (2027) |
| Life Time Paradise Valley | Life Time Living residences (2027) |
| Wren House Brewing Co. | |
| Hawaiian Bros Island Grill | |
| Frost Gelato Shoppe | |
| Distinctive Salon & Spa | |
| Federal Pizza |
The Names Still Waiting on Their Ribbon-Cutting
The marquee names are worth knowing, because they explain why PV keeps making news even when a lot of it is already open.
Harry & Izzy's is the one generating the most buzz. It's the first location outside Indiana for Huse Culinary, sister restaurant to St. Elmo Steak House, an Indianapolis institution dating back to 1902. The PV location is planned as an 8,300-square-foot building with a 2,400-square-foot patio and seating for 340, targeting the second quarter of 2026. As of this writing, none of the coverage tracking PV's rollout has reported an actual opening.
The Vig, an eighth Valley location for a tavern that started in Arcadia nearly 20 years ago, is aiming for early 2026 with a design that leans on adobe brick and copper accents as a nod to the original mall's mid-century roots. Cala, a coastal Mediterranean concept that first opened inside Senna House Hotel in 2022, is planning a 6,500-square-foot second location just west of Blanco Reserva, still simply dated "2026" with no quarter attached. Too Sweet Cakes, a bakery making the leap from pop-ups to its first storefront, is targeting the same Q2 2026 window, just north of Cala. Two beauty concepts, FACE FOUNDRIÉ and Zara Nail Bar, round out the 2026 list at 1,529 and 2,210 square feet respectively. The furthest out on the board is Helios Pilates, a San Diego studio opening its third location here, which isn't expected until 2027.
Why the Clock Keeps Resetting
None of this is a broken promise so much as a structural feature of how PV is being built. RED Development is treating the 100 acres as a series of blocks, each with its own identity, rather than a single leasing push. Fender's three-story Arizona co-headquarters broke ground in September 2024 and opened in 2025, which anchors the property, but a corporate headquarters is a decade-long commitment, not a quick storefront lease. The Life Time Living residential tower, expected in 2027, will eventually connect straight into the athletic club that's already open, turning that corner into something closer to its own small neighborhood inside the larger one.
Jeff Moloznik, a senior vice president at RED Development, told Axios Phoenix in April 2026 that by the following spring the property would look dramatically different from how it looks today. That's consistent with everything else in the timeline. This is a project that reveals itself in stages over years, and the businesses still waiting on a grand opening are simply on a later block than the ones already serving Tuesday night dinners.
How to Actually Spend a Saturday There Right Now
None of the still-coming names need to hold up your weekend. Start the morning with a grocery run at Whole Foods for the Arizona-grown produce, then work in a Pilates class or a few laps in Life Time's rooftop pool. Grab lunch at Velvet Taco, walk the Park at PV if there's live music scheduled, and close the evening with a round on Trevor's golf simulator before dinner at Blanco Reserva or a burger from The Melt. That's a full day built entirely from businesses that are already open, no waiting on a steakhouse patio or a bakery storefront required.
The headlines will keep chasing Harry & Izzy's and Cala, because new openings are more interesting to write about than businesses that have already blended into the background. For anyone actually living near this corner, the more useful fact is the opposite one: most of what makes PV worth visiting this month is already running, and has been for a while.
If you're keeping an eye on this part of the Valley, whether you're settled in nearby and just like knowing what's changing on your own corner, or you're weighing what a move near Paradise Valley might look like, the team at Daynes Development tracks these shifts closely. Contact Us anytime you want a second set of local eyes on what's actually happening here, not just what's been announced.
